Dudes:

I’m so thankful for the bros at Cornell, particularly the guys in Crusade (I’m thankful for the sisteren as well but this post is focused on the dudes).

(this is the most of them I could find at the same time)

I’ve found that I can’t stop telling other people how blessed I am to be surrounded with these group of guys.

Here are some reasons how I’ve been blessed by God:

1) Their desire to not have cheap relationships built on simply hanging out, common experiences, watching tv, or playing games/sports.  Just a bunch of guys who see themselves as redeemed sinners and want to point each toward God

2) Their willingness to rebuke and speak truth

3) Sometimes #2 doesn’t work out so well, so I’m also thankful for the grace of God displayed in the relationships

4) Their robust passion for the Word and biblical theology.  These guys encourage each other to hold tightly to biblical truth, even when it is countercultural or emotionally difficult.

5) The love of Christ displayed through their compassion

6) The grace of God that we haven’t killed each other.  We are a bunch of really different people who shouldn’t get along by the world’s standards.  We are different in our ethnicities, our cultures, our musical preferences, our personalities, the way we dress, the backgrounds we come from, our political stances, and the ways we’ve been raised.  The power of the gospel to reconcile man to man has been so incredibly displayed in this community.  It’s really a testimony to God’s redemptive work.

=

Praise Team/Singspiration Squad

I’m also super thankful for the Cru praise team.  It’s been a tough but grace-filled year as we’ve explored how we ought to engage culture with the different music styles and ways of leading. Our wednesday night practices and Friday set-up times have been some of my favorite times of the week.

The 116 Clique is a hip hop collaboration by a bunch of the top Christian rap artists.  The name is taken from Romans 1:16 - For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

This particular song is by my favorite Christian rapper, Trip Lee.  It is from the 116 Clique’s album 13 Letters, where all the songs are summaries of each of the 13 epistles Paul wrote to the early churches.

This song is called “To Live is Christ” and it is Philippians put to song.

(Verse citations in the parenthesis)

Brethren listen to this exposition
Paul wrote the Philippians some lessons for living (1:1)
Written to them but its real good text for Christians
So read it closely, I hope we can catch the vision
Chapter 1 he tells them he’s blessed to get them
Co-laboring with him to serve the best who’s risen (1:5, 7)
And that’s he’s confident the Lord will perfect in Christians
What He started and hearts will be corrected in them (1:6)
Listen, he was in prison now maybe never getting out
But all he could think about was the gospel getting out (1:12-14)
Some was even preaching Christ from selfish motives
Coming at Paul but dawg he shrugged his shoulders (1:15-18 )
His focus was Christ the Messiah man (1:19)
And for Him “to live is Christ and to die was gain” (1:20,21)
Yeah, he was hard pressed, but to remain in the flesh
Was more necessary so they faith would progress (1:22-24)
He wanted them to strive together for the gospel
In one spirit, one mind, listen to the apostle (1:27)
Maintain the same love, uplift your brothers
Don’t just look out for yourself, but for the interests of others (2:2-4)

Chorus:
Our life is nothing, but Christ is all (1:21)
So conduct yourselves worthy of His righteous call (1:27)

Chapter 2: Let’s examine five through eleven
The blessed lamb who resided in the Heavens (2:6)
Said forget the wealth and emptied Himself
Came as a man and died for the brethren (2:7, 8 )
Ultimate obedience, he died on the cross and (2: 8 )
Through His humility Christ was exalted (2:9)
Glory to the Father (2:11), now we should have
That same attitude Christ Jesus had (2:5)
And on to verse twelve work out your salvation (2:12)
The Father works in us in this process of saving (2:13)
Avoid dispute and prove yourself blameless
Children of God in a perverse generation (2:14,15)
Cling to the bible, humility is vital
We see it in lives of Paul and his disciples (2:17-30)
Serving him like father (2:22), some fellow soldiers (2:25)
Let us rejoice, unite, and rep Jehovah

Chapter 3: rejoice in the Lord we serve (3:1)
And forget about the flesh we nothing more than dirt (3:3)
Man if anyone could brag bout they status it was Paul
But to him it was trash it and he counted it as lost
For the sake of the Christ, ’cause He gave us life (3:4-7)
Not through anything we did but through faith in Christ (3:9)
We righteous in the eyes of the Lord’s that’s blessing
Conformed to His death and His resurrection (3:9-10)
Brethren, I don’t claim to have attained perfection’s
What he said but was reaching to what lies ahead (3:12-13)
And encouraged the Philippians to model what he said (3:15)
And not to walk in the flesh cause that walk is dead (3:17-19)
But we citizens of Heaven who eagerly wait for
The one that we rest in Jesus our Savior (3:20)
That’s who the Lord is and He will surely
Transform our bodies in future glory (3:21)

Chapter 4: he closes encouraging with words
In unity and harmony for those within the church (4:1-3)
Rejoice in the Lord, bro our hopes in Him first (4:4)
Let our thanks and our problems be known to Him first (4:6)
Embrace the peace of God, you can bet on that (4:7)
And whatever is good let your mind dwell on that (4:8 )
Then he thanked them again, for they gifts and concern (4:10)
But no matter what to be content he had learned (4:11-12)
Plus he was sure that he could do all things
Through Him who gave strength and can do all things (4:13)
And he told them they did well sharing through all pain (4:14)
And made sure they knew he sure he wasn’t trying to get more change (4:15-18 )
God will supply all they needs he hoped they might see this
According to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus (4:19)
The truth of Philippians I hope it hit you
And may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you (4:23)
I hope you like what you heard with me rapping these verses
But don’t get it twisted, we just scratching the surface
There’s more to be learned than this rap is saying
So read it, live it, learn it like the back of your hand

This has been an interesting exchange that has happened.  I’m trying to read up on this more.  I’m not endorsing any of the folks here, but wanted to provide some of the dialogue regarding this.  I think this election is pretty important and we really need Christians who will think critically, biblically, and carefully.

1) Dobson says Obama is guilty of “distorting the Bible”

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/24/evangelical.vote/index.html

Excerpt from Dobson’s talk:

“What the senator is saying there, in essence, is that ‘I can’t seek to pass legislation, for example, that bans partial-birth abortion, because there are people in the culture who don’t see that as a moral issue,’ ” Dobson said. “And if I can’t get everyone to agree with me, than it is undemocratic to try to pass legislation that I find offensive to the Scripture. Now, that is a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution.”

2) Jim Wallis, the point man of Sojourners, responds to Dobson

http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2008/06/dobson-and-obama-who-is-delibe.html

Excerpt from Wallis’ blog:

On the show, Dobson says of himself, “I’m not a reverend. I’m not a minister. I’m not a theologian. I’m not an evangelist. I’m a psychologist. I have a Ph.D. in child development.” Child psychologists don’t insert themselves into partisan politics in the regular way that James Dobson does and has over many years as one of the premier leaders of the Religious Right. He has spoken about how often he talked to Republican leaders — Karl Rove, administration strategists, and even President Bush himself. This year he tried to influence the outcome of the Republican primary by saying he would never vote for John McCain or the Republicans if they nominated him, then reversed himself and said he would vote after all but didn’t say for whom. But why should America care about how a child psychologist votes?

3) Peter Wehner responds to Jim Wallis’s blog:

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZGM0MDA4ZjQ0MTRhYmQyNTI3NGRiNzA0MzhmM2QwNWQ=

Excerpt of the article:

It now appears as if Wallis is willing to play by different sets of (Christian) rules, depending on what best advances his political ideology. His is a cautionary tale: many of us who are Christians and in the political and policy arena struggle with how to allow our faith to animate our political and philosophical views without allowing it to become merely an instrument to advance a narrow political agenda.

William Wilberforce was one of the great English reformers who pushed for the abolition of the African slave trade.  He saw what many in the Christian social justice movement today do not see, that doctrine and efforts toward social justice are inextricably tied.

Below is a quote from his book A Practical View of Christianity, where he diagnoses the problem in England.

The fatal habit of considering Christian morals as distinct from Christian doctrines insensibly gained strength. Thus the peculiar doctrines of Christianity went more and more out of sight, and as might naturally have been expected, the moral system itself also began to wither and decay, being robbed of that which should have supplied it with life and nutriment.

Basically, your doctrine frames everything you do.  Belief that is truly held affects the actions, and this happens both individually and corporately.

One of the big challenges in our generation is to hold a biblical view of justice and its relation to the gospel.  Because of our cultural blinders, it is far too easy to subtract from or add to the gospel.  This is a danger for both liberals and conservatives, for those that would consider themselves more traditional as well as for those who call themselves more progressive.  More thoughts on this later.

Should one “dress up” to go to church on Sundays?

There are 3 issues here:

1) Is there something unique about the day of Sunday?

2) Is church a place, a people, or a gathering?

3) Does dressing up show respect to God?

1) Is there something unique about the day of Sunday?

Sunday is the day we commemorate the day of Jesus’ ascension from the grave, conquering sin, satan, and death.  Though the gathering of Christians on Sunday is not biblically mandated, the early Jews who became Christ followers changed their date of worship from Saturday to Sunday.  That is actually one of the historical evidences for the resurrection.

But certainly there’s no good biblical reason to dress up because it’s Sunday.  Or else you would need to keep your nice clothes on all day.

2) Is church a place, a people, or a gathering?

The church is not a building.  It’s God’s redeemed people around the world.  The local church is the part of the body we meet and have community with.

Capitol Hill Baptist does a good job making this point each Sunday by saying “Welcome to the gathering of Capitol Hill Baptist Church,” as opposed to “Welcome to Capitol Hill Baptist Church.”  Sundays are times where the local church gathers to fellowship and hear the preaching of God’s word.

So the primary reason for dressing up cannot be that we should do it when we go to church.  This is because the church isn’t a location and Sunday services are the gathering of God’s people.  And there’s no good reason to say that everytime the church gathers, people should dress up (or you should dress up for meet ups over lunch, small group, bible study, etc).

3) Does dressing up show respect to God?

This really is the central issue.  The most common example used to support dressing up is “If you were to meet the President, wouldn’t you wear your best clothes to show respect to him?  And isn’t God so much more important than the President?  Therefore, you should dress up.”

But dressing up for events is really a cultural thing.  There are social norms of what is appropriate and what is professional for certain situations.  It varies from culture to culture.  Where a short sleeve shirt and slacks can be appropriate in one situation, a suit and tie may be necessary in another.

An interesting example comes from the hipster church.  People often don’t wear their “best” to church.  Most of the young professionals don’t wear a suit to church anyway, it’s something that’s sort of hip, stylish (maybe a polo, jeans, flip flops, complete with messy hair carefully styled).  Someone who does this is being inconsistent with their belief that they have to wear their best for God.

Here are some reasons why I believe dressing up for church doesn’t matter:

1) Christians are clothed with robes of righteousness:

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD;my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;he has covered me with the robe of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10)

We are clothed with the righteousness of Jesus, purchased through his perfect death for us on the cross!  God sees the inner garments that have been more than sufficiently provided for us.  We cannot add to this by wearing some pieces of cloth that will rot and perish later on.

2) The church is not a sacred space like the Old Testament temple.

The building where the church gathers is no more sacred than the office buildings where we work and the homes where we sleep.  The new covenant allows us direct access to the Holy of Holies through Christ as our intercessor (most of Hebrews) and the Spirit as our teacher and guide.

3) If the church is a place where the poor and the socially outcast are welcome, why are we expecting a standard of dress?

It seems to me that the only reasonable standard of dress should be directed toward modesty.  The prevalent expectation of a certain European style of dress seems unreasonable.  Jesus, during his ministry on earth, was a homeless guy and probably didn’t wear business professional when he was preaching in the synagogues.

4) The gathering of the church is a family event, not a formal gathering

Though God is the ruler of the universe, He has called us his children.

If we treat approaching God as a formal event, then we really should be dressing up every time we pray.  Because each time we do it, we are making requests of an infinitely holy God whose wrath formerly burned against us.  And to think sinners such as us could dare to make requests of that kind of God.  (But thanks be to Jesus, we have been called clean and now God hears us and responds!)

When people say that dressing up helps them prepare for the enormity of who God is, I think that’s fine.  But my question for you then is, “Why aren’t you doing that every time you approach God in prayer?”

Final Thoughts:

I don’t think we should flaunt our freedom in Christ and be one of those annoying punks in church who like to draw attention to themselves.

Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. (Romans 14:13-15)

So if everyone else wears suits in the church, then it may be good for the person not to wear basketball shorts.

All in all, I feel like the biblical view on Sunday dress is very liberating!  I’m not talking about reacting against conservatism, I’m talking about being intentionally biblical in evaluating what we do.  And to know that we are beautiful and blameless in the sight of God through the work of Christ, that is incredible!  We are clothed in robes of righteousness, the very righteousness of our risen saviour.  Now that is awesome.

http://www.readthisbeforeyoudie.com/index.php

Aubrey sent me this today. It’s pretty cool, the gospel contextualized to urban culture.

At the end you’ll see a track listing. Check out Lecrae’s “Take Me As I Am Intro” and then listen to “Take Me As I Am” afterward. The lyrics are pretty good.

(from Dave Liu’s google status)

It’s been about 10 years since Tim Keller wrote his last book. The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism is targeted to skeptics and believers. It’s the first book that I feel like would be really helpful to give to my friends who are skeptics.

It is divided like this:

The first half is called “The Leap of Doubt” and addresses 7 big questions against Christianity.

1. There can’t be just one true religion
2. A good God could not allow suffering
3. Christianity is a straitjacket
4. The church is responsible for so much injustice
5. A loving God would not send people to hell
6. Science has disproved Christianity
7. You can’t take the Bible literally

In the middle, there is an intermission.

In the second half of the book, titled “The Reasons for Faith,” he examines seven reasons to believe in the claims of the Christian faith.

1. The clues of God
2. The knowledge of God
3. The problem of sin
4. Religion and the gospel
5. The (true) story of the cross
6. The reality of the resurrection
7. The Dance of God

And then it closes with an Epilogue.

I had started reading a little bit of the 1st half and found it so-so. So I skipped to the intermission and 2nd half and loved it.

It is very well thought out, pierces the heart, and clarifies and puts many things in a framework which can be easily understood.

Now there are a few things that I feel iffy about, including his description of hell. But overall, I think the book is fantastic. Keller is like a surgeon, going straight for the heart. I’d really recommend picking up a few copies and giving them away.

Tis Valentine’s Day. Romance is in the air, people will go on fancy dates, and Google Docs is pink.

Today I listened through the first part of the 2 part series Mark Driscoll preached on Lovemaking. He goes through the Song of Solomon.

John Sullivan, my buddy in Crusade, had been telling me about it for a while. Last week, he sent me an e-mail about the message again.

Subject Headline:

the best sermon mark driscoll has ever or will ever preach….ever

Body Text:

and you need to listen to it mr raymond li.

http://www.marshillchurch.org/audio/03.10.02_10am_lovemaking_part_one_driscoll.mp3
http://www.marshillchurch.org/audio/03.10.02_10am_lovemaking_part_two_driscoll.mp3

its so good that it got broken into 2 parts

so have fun wit dat

john

John was right. I just got done with part 1 and it was awesome. Here are a few thoughts:

• It seems that many Christians (including me) have been taught or grown up in a church environment where there is a more frigid view of sex or an unwillingness to talk frankly about sex.
• Even those who intellectually believe the Bible says sex is good may have a repressed and unbiblical view of sex.
• The Bible has a very high and beautiful view of sex.
• Not only is it high and beautiful, but it is also hot and liberated.
• I want to get married and hope I do not have the gift of singleness.
• John was right when he said that having a truly biblical view of sex makes it easier to fight lust
• It’s about oneness for the glory of God.

Enjoy your Valentine’s Day.

I’m on the Campus Church Networks e-mail list and I received yesterday the first e-mail from it that I have seriously read in a long while.

Jaeson Ma, the director of CCN, shared a very personal journal entry.  Now there are many things that I don’t agree with Jaeson on theologically but I can tell that this man loves Jesus.  And this entry was so encouraging and helpful for me.  I have an excerpt of it below.

 Sometimes, we don’t know how to change, so God has to get our attention by sending us into times of isolation. I believe the Holy Spirit is leading me soon into a time of sovereign isolation. It’s taken me 10 years to recognize what I really want. You see, God will give you what you want to show you what you really need. I thought for most of my life that what I wanted was to be successful, to make my life count, to do something great in this world for Him. God gave that to me, because I asked for it. In the last 10 years I’ve traveled the world and fulfilled what I believe God told me to do. I was obedient to the heavenly vision, “The Blueprint” if you may have it, and I preached the Gospel from campus to campus, city to city, nation to nation. Souls were won, disciples were made, hundreds of churches were planted and yes, lives were changed. Yet, in the midst of all the supernatural encounters, all the signs, wonders and miracles, my heart at times, felt empty. Why? It’s not because God didn’t want me to do all the things that I did for Him. The calling was always real. But what He wanted from me was not what I could do for Him, in order to please Him, but what He wanted was my heart. God will never have you sacrifice relationship with Him to do ministry for Him. Most Christian leaders I know have more of a relationship with their revelation, than they do with God. They are driven by the vision, by the ministry machine and not by relationship. This was me, and God had to wake me up to show me that successful ministry, will only leave you empty and dissatisfied if you don’t have intimacy with Jesus and community with others.

The prophet Elijah had to learn that success for God is different from success in God. In 1 Kings 18, Elijah has a showdown with the prophets of Baal. He encounters God in a powerful way, fire falls down from heaven and consumes the sacrifice on the altar, all the opposing false prophets are destroyed and Elijah wins, or does he? In the very next chapter we find Elijah running for his life. Why? The evil queen Jezebel had put a price on his head. He then tells God he wished he was never born, that he feels abandoned and wants to quit. God responds by sending Elijah into the dessert, then to Mt. Horeb into a period of complete isolation. This story of Elijah always boggled my mind. How could this mighty prophet on one hand have such great power and success in ministry one day and the very next day be completely depressed, suicidal and wanting to give up on everything? It finally made sense recently when I was studying this book called “Isolation” for my Fuller Seminary class. The author explained the 4-fold process of isolation in transforming the life of a leader in this way…

1. Stripping
2. Wrestling with God
3. Increased Intimacy
4. Release to Look Toward the Future

As I did this inductive study on 1 Kings 18-19 I finally understood why Elijah responded the way he did. For Elijah, his success was found in what he did for God. His identity did not come from His relationship in God, but his identity came from his ministry, that is, what he did for God. When ministry was going great, he was doing great. When ministry was going bad, he was doing horrible, because his ministry had become his identity. He found his worth, his value and success in what He did. He related to God out of function, but not out of relationship. When we relate to God only for what He can do for us, we really have no relationship at all. All we end up doing is a lot of “stuff” for God, empty stuff, because really it’s about ourselves and not about Him. We find our value in our performance and ministry becomes our identity. When we don’t have relationship we don’t have anything at all. Elijah had great success in ministry, but successful ministry will never leave you satisfied and fulfilled. The moment that success in ministry ends and you are left all alone, you become even more emptied inside, because all your satisfaction came from outward activity, not inward joy. God had to teach Elijah that his success was not found in the winds, the earthquake and the mighty fire, but rather, his significance was found in a “still small voice” that beckoned Elijah into an intimate relationship with His Creator.

In the process, God had to…

1) Strip Elijah from any success found in ministry, so God isolated Elijah by sending him persecution from Jezebel that forced him to run for his life into the dessert. In the dessert he had nothing. He had no one to tell him how great he was. He had no friends, no sustenance, no applause, no position and no ministry to find his identity or worth in. God had to strip all his external identities, so that Elijah could receive the identity God would place upon him.

2) Elijah had to “wrestle with God” in the dessert for forty days asking himself the question, “What is my true identity – apart from outward ministry?” He had to come face to face with who he really was. Not the prophet, not the mighty minister, not the guy who calls down fire from heaven, but the man who was in need of finding his true self. He had to wrestle with the important questions of life. Who was he really and what did he ultimately want? He had to come face to face with God and himself.

3) Increased intimacy was the result of Elijah’s stripping and wrestling with God. He had to get honest before God, and through isolation he recognized he wasn’t as in control or as put together as he thought he was. He admitted his character flaws, his need for change and most of all his need for God. He had to ask himself what he really wanted in life. Through this time of humbling, he knew he could no longer find his identity in successful ministry, he understood success is only found by being satisfied in the presence and loving arms of Jesus. As intimacy increased with Elijah and God, the need for “cutting edge” ministry decreased. He understood his true identity did not come from the external, but from his internal relationship with the Father. He could be still and finally know the still small voice of God was enough. This is what God wanted all along, and now what Elijah wanted, intimacy with God.

4) Elijah was released to look toward the future. He came out of the time of isolation, not by his own choice, but by the leading of the Spirit. For many, we try to leave God’s sovereign work of isolation in our lives too early, but this can be dangerous because it proves His presence is still not enough. When Elijah left isolation, it was because God spoke to him, and told him his next assignment. He didn’t move till God said so. Yet, this time, it was not about Elijah but it was about empowering the next generation to fulfill God’s destiny. Elijah was called to anoint Jehu and Elisha to carry on the work. He did this with a quite peace, knowing it was no longer about himself, but about God and others.

When I studied God’s purpose for Elijah in isolation, I knew God was asking me to experience the same. Like Elijah, I had found my identity in my performance and ministry for God. I kept doing and doing, becoming more tired, more dissatisfied each time I was left alone and wanted to quit at times because the ministry was too demanding. That’s when God hit me with a tone of bricks.

I’ve been traveling non-stop doing itinerant ministry for nearly 7 years now. Around late December, all the traveling had finally caught up to my body. In mid November of 2007 I had taken on too much responsibility for the different projects I was working on. All the stress had mounted up and I was getting hardly any sleep at night. I would sleep for 2 hours, at most 3 hours and then I would wake up with my mind spinning. This lasted for more than 40 days straight. During the day, my body felt like it was walking through mud. My mind was exhausted and no matter how hard I tried to get work done, I couldn’t because my energy was zapped. It got really bad, so I got a medical check up. I was diagnosed with “adrenal exhaustion” it’s a symptom that happens to people when they become over stressed because they have completely exhausted their adrenal glands, which are the glands in the body that give us the drive and energy to get things done. I was told that if I didn’t stop my hectic ministry schedule, something very bad could happen, something that I would regret if I did not make the right decision to slow things down.

This was my wake up call from God. He showed me, that I could either bench myself or that He would bench me, like He did to Elijah. I knew that God was telling me that I had to learn to rest. If not, ministry would consume me and become my god. When I received this diagnosis and medical warning, I went into a time of deep prayer and reflection. It was in this time I decided I needed to choose the place of isolation in order to find my true self again.

Near the new year of 2008, I wrote a personal letter to all my ministry partners worldwide. I shared with them honestly how I was burning out, losing my passion for Jesus and my medical condition. I told them I needed a break from ministry and would need to cancel certain ministry commitments for health reasons. This was one of the most difficult letters I had ever written, because I didn’t want to let my friends down, but obedience is better than sacrifice. My friends from around the world responded with great grace and supported my decision. As of now, I’ve decided to finish certain ministry commitments in 2008, while cancelling others so that I can have adequate time to restore my body and get my life back into order. At the moment, I plan to take a one year sabbatical from all platform ministry (speaking publicly) beginning in Oct 2008. It’s been difficult to say “no” but I’m glad I did it. I feel God’s peace in this decision.

I’ve been asking myself recently what I really want in life. I’ve come to the conclusion that all I want is relationship with God and to build healthier relationships with those most important to me. I want to know Jesus more. I want to know what it means to truly live in Christ. I feel like I’m getting my heart back, a little bit at least and God is teaching me what it means to live again.